Dr. Bulbul’s Arabichttp://drbulbul.com
A Blog for Learners of ArabicFri, 16 Feb 2018 13:11:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.3I want to learn Arabic. How should I start?http://drbulbul.com/2018/02/05/i-want-to-learn-arabic/
http://drbulbul.com/2018/02/05/i-want-to-learn-arabic/#respondMon, 05 Feb 2018 12:19:14 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1259As a teacher of Arabic, I am sometimes asked what the best way is to start learning the language. In this article I’ll give some tips and things to consider.

What kind of Arabic? The language normally used in newspapers, books, and scripted material is usually known as Modern Standard Arabic, abbreviated as MSA. MSA is essentially based on Classical Arabic (of the 7th to 9th centuries), somewhat simplified and updated with vocabulary and expressions needed for modern life and thought. What people speak in their homes, with their friends, and in everyday transactions is not MSA, but the modern spoken dialect of where they are from or where they live.

It is generally recommended that beginners start by learning Modern Standard Arabic rather than a modern dialect. There are several reasons for this. For starters, you have a much greater selection of learning and reference materials to choose from. There is a lot more to read, since not much is written in any of the spoken dialects. It is universal, so you can speak it with any literate person from an Arabic-speaking country. It is also much easier to learn to read starting from MSA. Once you have gained a bit of reading facility in MSA, you can always switch tracks to a spoken dialect, bringing with you a solid basis in MSA. Also remember that MSA and the modern dialects are actually intertwined; educated speakers of Arabic often pepper their speech with words and expressions borrowed from the written language.

For most people, I also recommend that you start with MSA. There will always be some people who for special reasons are better off starting with a local dialect, such as those already living in an Arab country. If you are one of these people, I would start by finding a good textbook. Many excellent books are available for learning Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Levantine Arabic, and other varieties.

Take a classroom course. If you have the opportunity, I recommend starting by taking a class. For most people, having a regular meeting time, classmates, and a teacher setting the pace is much more motivating than trying to work through a book on one’s own.

Start with the alphabet. But suppose you can’t take a classroom course or really prefer not to. Then I propose you start by learning the alphabet, and the most effective way to do that is by using a textbook dedicated to learning the writing system. Two books I can recommend for that are my own Bite-Size Arabic and the widely used university textbook Alif Baa. The advantage of these two books compared to some others on the market is that they devote ample attention to writing as well as to reading: Bite-Size has a free writing workbook you can download, and Alif Baa doubles as a workbook, with plenty of space for writing in the book itself. You can supplement these books by finding videos about Arabic handwriting on YouTube.

The reason I recommend starting with a book dedicated to the alphabet is that several popular general beginning textbooks of Arabic devote too little attention to the alphabet and are incomplete in their explanations, making it difficult to get past the first few chapters. And since these books devote almost no attention to handwriting, it is very difficult for the learner to do the exercises that require writing the answers in Arabic.

Watch video content. Learners in our modern world are very lucky to have so much video content at there fingertips. For the absolute beginner, I would recommend starting with ArabicPod101’s “Arabic in Three Minutes” series. After that, you could explore some of the video content for beginners listed on the home page of Dr. Bulbul’s Arabic under the heading “Things to Watch and Listen To”.

I would not consider video material as a substitute for a textbook, but something extra to be used alongside it. Generally speaking, only a textbook is going to give you adequate, systematic explanation.

Get a beginning textbook designed for independent learners. There are lots of beginning textbooks out there, but not all of them are good, and some of them that are good are better tailored to classroom use than to the needs of an independent learner. (The university textbook Al-Kitaab is one such classroom-tailored book.) Two books I have two with are Mastering Arabic 1 and Complete Arabic. Again, I recommend first learning to read and write the alphabet before beginning with either of these books.

Find a language buddy, tutor, or teacher. Working with a book can remain rather theoretical. You can continue to learn new vocabulary and grammar without really improving your ability to communicate. The best way to grow those communication skills is with real, human interaction in the target language. My favorite way to do this is through the iTalki.com, which is a hub where you can find language teachers, tutors, and language exchange partners. If you want formal lessons, you search for a teacher; for paid conversation practice, you look for a teacher that offers “informal tutoring”; and for a language buddy, you find other members interested in your language who also speak Arabic and send them a message. You conduct the sessions using Skype or some other VOIP program. The formal lessons and informal tutoring are relatively inexpensive, and all of the administration, like scheduling and payment, are handled through the hub. I’ve had great success with iTalki.com for other languages.

Another tool you may wish to try is Amikumu, which is an app for your smartphone that locates other speakers of your language in your area in real time so you can set up actual meetings to practice.

Good luck! Learning Arabic is fun and rewarding. I hope these tips were of help to you. If you have additional tips for getting started with Arabic, leave a comment below.

]]>http://drbulbul.com/2018/02/05/i-want-to-learn-arabic/feed/0Using Bite-Size Arabic in the classroomhttp://drbulbul.com/2018/02/04/using-bite-size-arabic-in-the-classroom/
Sun, 04 Feb 2018 15:41:56 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1223Bite-Size Arabic: Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar by Leston Chandler Buell (that is, by me, Dr. Bulbul) is a new textbook designed for both classroom use and independent learners. The book’s companion website has a (hidden) page for teachers where you can also download sample pages. In this article, I will describe how I use this book in my introductory, ten-week courses for adults at UvA Talen in Amsterdam.

Brief description of the book.Bite-Size Arabic teaches the Arabic writing system, along with about 135 vocabulary items and a bit of grammar. Letters and diacritics are introduced a few at a time over the course of twelve units. The numerals are also introduced in the last unit. The vocabulary and grammar is closely linked to the letters that the student has learned to read: Words are only introduced at the point where the student can read them in Arabic script. Furthermore, letters are presented in such an order that basic words such as the singular pronouns, the demonstratives, and the definite article can be introduced early on, allowing students to read complete simple sentences as early as the second unit. The focus throughout the book is on working with complete sentences. There is a companion website with audio of the vocabulary lists and most of the exercises. A companion handwriting workbook with exercises closely tied to the book can be downloaded for free.

Course format. Courses at UvA Talen could best be described as adult education courses and do not carry university course credits. Courses at all levels consist of ten 2.5-hour sessions, thus totalling 25 hours, usually meeting on a weekly basis. However, the last session is mostly taken up by the final exam, so the total contact hours is more like 23. Bite-Size is used only in the first course: Arabic 1. As of January 2018, we use the Mastering Arabic series for the subsequent levels 2 through 6. (If you’re wondering about the language of instruction, although Bite-Size is in English, I teach the course in Dutch unless there are non-Dutch-speaking students enrolled.)

A 12-unit book in nine sessions. The fact that the book’s 12 units need to be taught within the first nine sessions of the course means that we usually cover one unit in a single session, while for three sessions we cover two units. When we cover only one unit, a lot of time is left over to work on speaking skills. To that end we use my textbook Tasharrafnaa, which is entirely in transcription. You are free to download, use, and even modify Tasharrafnaa, but you may have other materials more to your liking which don’t assume prior knowledge of the Arabic alphabet. The priority in the lessons is always to stay on track with Bite-Size. Ideally, I like to do at least a bit of work in Tasharrafnaa in each session, but I often slip behind, devoting more time to Bite-Size. The students are only tested on the material in Bite-Size. Here is a sample syllabus:

A little explanation, a little practice.Bite-Size units are divided in to small sections that explain some letter, symbol, grammatical point, or usage point, followed by an exercise or two. So, I usually explain the section briefly and then have them do the exercises. This helps break the monotony. (When I explain a section, I don’t need to go through all of the examples, as the students are expected to have read the unit as part of their homework.)

Short reading exercises. Many of the exercises, especially those designed to practice a new letter, have the student read individual words. I usually do these together with students, calling on individual students to read the words, going in a circle. This gives me the opportunity to correct pronunciation and answer questions about Arabic script, to everyone’s benefit. Other exercises I do this way include letter descrimination exercises (e.g., does this word contain a ث or a ش?).

Translation exercises. For translation exercises, I have the students divide up into pairs. Besides keeping the class more lively, this ensures that every student actually works through each sentence. It is also great to see how students coach and teach each other when they work in pairs.

Dialogues. A couple of the lessons have dialogues, such as the four dialogues in exercise 11-H (Unit 11). The first step of working through such a dialogue is the same as a translation exercise: figuring out what is written and what it means. I have the students break up into pairs for this. Then, when all of the pairs have finished, for each dialogue I pick two students to read the two parts.

Homework regime. My general approach is to have the students read each Bite-Size unit before it is discussed in class. The only exception is the very first session, in which I explain the entire first unit in class. Then they don’t actually have to read Unit 1, except for the section about typing Arabic on a touchscreen device. Once a unit has been discussed in class, they complete any exercises in the unit that we didn’t do in class, and they also complete the corresponding unit in the handwriting workbook as homework.

Let’s say that we just discussed Unit 6 in class. The homework for the next class will then consist of the following:

Doing any exercises from Unit 6 that we didn’t do in class. (Note that some of the exercises, such as those in fill-in-the-blank format, are better suited as homework.)

Completing the corresponding Unit 6 in the handwriting workbook.

Read Unit 7 and learn the new vocabulary. (They aren’t expected to do the exercises in Unit 7 yet, as we will do a lot of them in class.)

Because both Bite-Size and the handwriting workbook have answer keys, the students can check their own work. However, it’s a good idea to check their handwriting homework from time to time so that bad habits can be corrected.

Note that some students prefer to work on the exercises before a unit is discussed in class, using the companion website for help with the pronunciation.

Final exam. Students in my Arabic 1 course are only tested on the material presented in Bite-Size. Here’s some information about the final exam:

At this level, students are not expected to know how to spell words of Arabic from memory. However, they are expected to know how to write the pronominal suffixes. So, if I give them the word بيت, I can ask them how to say “his house” and they are expected to write بيته. They are also expected to know how to conjugate a verb correctly (singular persons, present tense) if they are given one form.

Question types include: (1) fill in blank with word that completes the sentence (based either on sense of the word or grammatical form), (2) letter/symbol discrimination (which can include things like “Does this word contain ’alif maṣquura, ’alif maadda, or taa’ marbuuṭa?”), (3) fill answer to simple arithmetic equation with Arabic numeral, (4) translate Arabic sentence into English/Dutch, (5) fill in correct demonstrative to match translation, (6) fill in missing forms of conjugation, (7) make a possessive of a given noun (e.g., بيت, “his house”).

Although students are not expected to know how to spell arbitrary words, they do have to write this very short text from memory on their final exam, substituting their own name and their own country of origin:

أهلاً وسهلًا! اسمي مريم وأنا من هولندا.

In preparation for learning to write this, when we are approaching the end of the textbook, we devote time in class to discussing how foreign names are spelled and make decisions concerning how each student wants to spell their name.

I like giving this memorized text because it gives the students something they can do to impress their friends and demonstrate that they can do something concrete after finishing the course.

Conclusion. I hope this article has given you some ideas on how to use Bite-Size Arabic in the classroom. I have had very good results with this book, and students who have gone on to higher levels have told me how much they enjoyed using it. If you have more ideas about how to use Bite-Size in the classroom, please share them with us by leaving a comment.

]]>Umm Kulthum’s «ألف ليلة وليلة» (A Thousand and One Nights)http://drbulbul.com/2018/02/02/umm-kulthum-1001-nights/
http://drbulbul.com/2018/02/02/umm-kulthum-1001-nights/#respondFri, 02 Feb 2018 15:06:37 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1197Though she died in 1975, Umm Kulthum is undisputably the Arab world’s most renowned and beloved singer. If you would like to learn more about this Egyptian icon, take a look at this Wikipedia page. (If you have some Arabic reading skills, you could also look at her page on the Arabic Wikipedia page.) There is also an hour-long documentary entitled Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt narrated by Omar Sharif! If you can understand French, you may also enjoy the more modern documentary Oum Kalthoum: la voix du Caire.

Many students may be familiar with this singer’s name (which in Western languages can be spelled in many different ways, such as also “Oum Kalthoum”) but have never actually heard her sing. The intention of this page is to let you listen to what is my favorite song by her: ألف ليلة وليلة’alf leela w leela ‘A Thousand and One Nights’. (The song title is the Arabic title of the book best known in English as “The Arabian Nights”.) This is a very romantic song, one in which the singer hopes that the night with her sweetheart never comes to an end and in which she implores the sun not to come back until a whole year has gone by.

To get a feel for this song and for Omm Kalthum’s singing style and stage presence, take a look at this short exerpt of her in concert:

Did I say that this was only an excerpt? Umm Kalthum’s songs are extremely long. Not only are the texts fairly long, but there are usually long instrumental introductions and interludes. Furthermore, entire sections are often repeated. However, don’t think that this makes a song particularly repetitive; each individual section generally has its own melody, rather than being organized into different verses that each follow the same tune. Here is a performance of the entire song:

I’ll give you two links that will help you understand the song:

The page for this song on the shira.net website presents the text in side-by-side Arabic transliteration and English translation in a table. The transliteration is rather dreadful, but it will make the text easy to follow for those with limited Arabic skills.

If you can handle Arabic script, then take a look at the page for this song on the lyricstranslate.com website, where you can look at the English translation alongside the original in Arabic script. (You’ll have to click on a button to display the Arabic.)

Do bear in mind that this song is in Egyptian Arabic, not in Modern Standard Arabic.

The short text in Arabic in Unit 1 of Mastering Arabic 2 mentions that Umm Kulthum’s funeral was attended by six million people. Here is a clip with footage from her funeral on Youtube.

]]>http://drbulbul.com/2018/02/02/umm-kulthum-1001-nights/feed/0Bite-Size Arabic: A reviewhttp://drbulbul.com/2018/01/31/bite-size-arabic-a-review/
http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/31/bite-size-arabic-a-review/#respondWed, 31 Jan 2018 13:22:39 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1174Bite-Size Arabic: Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar by Leston Chandler Buell (that is, by me, Dr. Bulbul) is a new textbook designed for both classroom use and independent learners. It teaches the reading and writing system of Standard Arabic, along with a smidgen of vocabulary and grammar, and has a free and open companion website with extensive audio material and a handwriting workbook that can be downloaded free of charge. As the author of this book, I’m going to use this review to discuss its features and philosopy, with the hope that in doing so I can convince you that Bite-Size is an excellent starting point if you want to learn to read and write Arabic.

Philosophy

Words in context. I wrote Bite-Size out of frustrations I experienced using another introductory textbook of the Arabic writing system. The main frustration had to do with the order in which the letters were introduced. In Arabic, there are a handful of letters you absolutely need to write even the simplest of sentences. The book I was using introduced the letters in such an order that you couldn’t read complete sentences until you reached the end of the book. What I needed was a book that had the learner reading simple sentences right from the beginning. This required careful consideration of the order in which the letters were introduced. Once a new letter was introduced, relevant vocabulary and grammar would be introduced using that letter.

A list of desiderata. In addition to this basic approach, the book needed to explain everything completely, but in easy language. It needed to be appropriate for both classroom use and the independent learner. Above all, it should not attempt to accomplish too many things at once: It needed to introduce just enough new vocabulary and grammar to keep up the learner’s momentum. Any learner putting in a reasonable amount of effort should be able to complete the entire book, thus learning the entire Arabic writing system, and not be held back by a backlog of vocabulary to memorize.

A book is born. The result of this wish list was Bite-Size Arabic! Now let’s take a look at some of its features.

Features

Bite-Size Arabic introduces letters and diacritics a few at a time over the course of 12 units, but unlike in Alif Baa the introduction of vocabulary and grammar in Bite-Size is closely linked to the letters that the student can read: words are only introduced at the point where the student can read them in Arabic script. Furthermore, letters are presented in such an order that basic words such as the singular pronouns, the demonstratives, and the definite article can be introduced early on, allowing students to read complete simple sentences right from the first units. The focus throughout the book is on working with complete sentences using a small, carefully selected vocabulary.

Structure. The book is divided into 12 units, each of which introduces a few letters and symbols (except fot the last unit, which introduces the numerals). In addition, new points of grammar are explained. The explanatory text makes extensive use of transliteration alongside Arabic script. The unit is interspersed with a variety of exercises of different sorts, most of which can be listened to on the companion website. It should also be mentioned that the Arabic examples and exercises are in a large, easy-to-read font.

At the end of the book, you will find an Arabic–English glossary, with both Arabic script and transliteration. There is also a handy summary of the entire Arabic writing system, which is also a popular feature on the book’s website.

Informal Standard Arabic. The target language is informal Standard Arabic. That is, the standard written language, common to all Arabic countries, without many of the grammatical endings characteristic of Classical Arabic and formal Standard Arabic. This informal variety of Modern Standard Arabic is the target language of most modern textbooks on the market, such as Alif Baa, Complete Arabic, and Mastering Arabic. This variety of Arabic will allow you to be understood wherever you travel, but without sounding pedantically bookish.

Vocabulary reinforcement. The philosophy behind Bite-Size Arabic entails learning a minimal amount of vocabulary and grammar, but learning it very well. This requires frequently reusing vocabulary items in new contexts, in both the examples and the exercises. This will help you remember the vocabulary you are learning. (Many textbooks aren’t very good at this, often presenting many words only once.)

Companion website. The companion website is rather minimal, but it provides audio for most of the exercises in the book as well as for all of the vocabulary lists. Some other textbooks provide an accompanying CD, but I find that more and more students do not have easy access to a CD player. I wish more textbooks would simply make their audio material available online. The Bite-Size website is open for all; you do not need to set up an account to access any of the material.

Handwriting workbook.Bite-Size has a companion handwriting workbook that you can download for free from the website. It contains lots of models and handwriting exercises, some of which reinforce vocabulary and grammar material introduced in the book.

Conclusion

So, there you have it: Bite-Size Arabic’s philosophy and most important features. I hope I have succeeded in convincing you that Bite-Size is a great starting point if you want to learn to read and write Arabic. Maybe you even want to purchase a copy immediately. Don’t let me stop you!

]]>http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/31/bite-size-arabic-a-review/feed/0Tasharrafnaa: A short textbook in transcription for use with Alif Baa or Bite-Size Arabichttp://drbulbul.com/2018/01/30/tasharrafnaa/
http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/30/tasharrafnaa/#respondTue, 30 Jan 2018 09:50:56 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1147Two introductory textbooks for the Arabic writing system—Alif Baa and Bite-Size Arabic—teach the alphabet gradually, introducing just a few letters per unit. If the teacher covers just one unit per class meeting using these books, we are left with the problem of how to teach communication skills with the remaining classroom time before students have the ability to read in Arabic. (Alif Baa attempts to do this with lists of vocabulary and expressions, but I find this unsatisfactory, as I described in my review of that book.)

It was to solve this problem that I wrote Tasharrafnaa, a short textbook of Standard Arabic in which Arabic is presented entirely in transcription. The material covered by Tasharrafnaa includes greetings, demonstratives, simple questions, expressing ‘to have’ with عند, and singular forms of the verb in the present tense.

Although I wouldn’t consider Tasharrafnaa ideal and although I am planning to write a replacement for it that takes a completely different approach (with more emphasis on conversation skills and with less explicit grammar), the textbook has served me well for the last two years in courses I have taught at UvA Talen.

Tasharrafnaa in ODT format, the native format of LibreOffice, the program in which I wrote the book. This format allows you to modify the book to fit your needs.

One attractive feature of the book is that there are homework exercises at the end of each unit. The answers to these exercises can be found in the answer key at the end of the book.

If you find errors in the book please let me know so that I can correct them when I update the version (which I will do, as needed). In particular, I have not had the dialogues that open each unit reviewed by a native speaker.

The current version of Tasharrafnaa is a bit shorter than the one I used until recently. I removed the final Unit 5, because it was too long and difficult and because it introduced too much vocabulary in the final week of my ten-week introductory course. This leaves me needing to develop new material for the end of my course. Since by Lesson 8, students have learned the entire alphabet, instead of revising Unit 5 (which was mostly in transcription), what I intend to write is easy material, including review material, in Arabic script, which will reinforce students’ reading skills, integrating them with the grammar and vocabulary that they have already learned in transcription. I will also post that here when I have finished it. (I have to do that soon, in February 2018, because a course is already in progress.)

I hope you find Tasharrafnaa useful!

]]>http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/30/tasharrafnaa/feed/0Alif Baa: A reviewhttp://drbulbul.com/2018/01/29/alif-baa-a-review/
http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/29/alif-baa-a-review/#respondMon, 29 Jan 2018 11:32:44 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1121 In this review I will give my perspective on Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds (ألف باء: مدخل إلى حروف العربية وأصواتها), a popular textbook by Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, and Abbas Al-Tonsi. The book comes with a CD full of audio material. Access to a companion website with video material can be purchased separately.

As the title suggests, the main focus of this book the alphabet, but it also has some other interesting features. This book is actually the introductory volume to the Al-Kitaab series, which are probably the most widely used textbooks used in American university courses. The whole series, including Alif Baa, was designed for classroom use, but this review is more geared towards independent learners. I have taught several courses using this book.

Structure. The book is divided into ten units, each of which introduces several letters and symbols, with explanatory text, examples, exercises, and cultural notes.

The pros

Standard Arabic and dialect side by side. One of the first questions to ask when evaluating an Arabic textbook is what kind of Arabic it teaches. Alif Baa takes a unique approach to this question. While the reading and writing portion focuses on (somewhat informal) Standard Arabic, the vocabulary sections present three different varieties: Standard Arabic (labeled “formal/written”), Egyptian dialect, and Levantine dialect. This gets you used to the idea right from the start that “knowing Arabic” entails knowing not only Standard Arabic for reading and writing, but also some modern dialect for spontaneous communication. The three varieties are presented as columns in a table, so you can also a feel for how similar they are to one another.

Good exercises. The exercises in this book are nicely varied and plentiful: letter connection, reading, dictation, sound discrimination, and others.

Big print, writing space for practice. Examples and writing models are presented in very large, readable print, often with handy little arrows to indicate the direction of writing. Alif Baa is both a textbook and a workbook. The writing exercises provide plenty of space for you to practice writing right in the book. Its large format and the way that it lies nicely flat make it easy to write in (the glossy paper somewhat less so, however).

Colorful and attractive. No one could deny that this is an attractive, colorful book. Color is used to full effect throughout, with specific letters or symbols in individual words often highlighted by using a different color of ink. There are many illustrations and photos, usually related to a cultural note or a word or letter that has just been introduced.

Cultural notes. Many lessons include a useful cultural note. Topics include “At the coffee house”, “Guests’ and hosts’ roles”, and “Development of the Arabic writing system”.

The cons

Expensive! One might expect such an attractive book to come at a price, but do you really want to pay $45/€45 for a 250-page book (granted, plus CD) just to learn the alphabet? There’s also a companion website with video materials, and access to that will cost you an additional $25! (I have never seen the website, but a student recently told me that the video material wasn’t that great and that she would have been better off just watching free videos on YouTube instead.)

Many individual words, no complete sentences. Other than the high price, my biggest issue with Alif Baa is the almost exclusive focus on reading individual words, rather than phrases or sentences. Indeed, the order in which the letters are introduced is such that it’s practically impossible to have the student read even the simplest complete sentences (e.g., “The house is here.”, “This is a book.”) until the end of the book. So, throughout the book, the learner readers and writes unconnected words, many of which are useful or are too advanced. I find this a waste of effort. Although such words do give you reading and writing practice, it is more motivating and meaningful to practice writing words that you can use. (These problems are what led me to write Bite-Size Arabic.)

What am I supposed to do with this vocabulary? Each unit in the book introduces not only new letters and symbols, but also roughly 20 vocabulary items. This is presented in a three-dialect table as described above. But what is the student supposed to do with these words? There is no guidance as how to make sentences with them. For example, unit 6 includes the words for ‘ready’, ‘coffee’, ‘milk’, ‘sugar’, ‘I go’, and ‘he goes’, but there is no indication of how to use these in sentences. A good teacher would be able to devise ways to activate this vocabulary in the classroom, but that seems like poor design on the part of the authors, and it is of no help to the independent learner who has nothing to rely on than the book.

The CD medium. The book comes with a CD with audio material. This is great, but I am discovering in my classes that many people no longer have easy access to a CD player. While Alif Baa does have a companion website, access costs $25 (and I’m not even sure if the website includes the material on the CD).

Appropriate for the independent learner? This book really isn’t designed for the independent learner, but rather for a classroom student as preparation for the Al-Kitaab series. That’s not to say that you can’t work through the book on your own, though. If you do plan on using this book independently, I suggest you fork out the additional $7 for the answer key booklet.

Depending on what type of learner you are and what your next step will be, you might consider simply working through the reading and writing portion of the booklet, skipping over the vocabulary, which is poorly integrated. That way, you will learn the alphabet quickly, preparing you for a general beginning textbook, such as either Mastering Arabic 1 or Complete Arabic. (I wouldn’t recommend Al-Kitaab for independent learners. It is really specifically designed for classroom use.)

Conclusion

All-in-all, this is an attractive book that pleasant to work with. Drawbacks include a very high price, the need to purchase a separate answer key, too much emphasis on individual words out of context, and poor integration of vocabulary. However, some learners will find this a good book to learn to read and write Arabic.

]]>http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/29/alif-baa-a-review/feed/0Arabic 4 syllabus, January–March 2018http://drbulbul.com/2018/01/28/arabic-4-syllabus-january-march-2018/
Sun, 28 Jan 2018 14:37:46 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1094The following is the overall syllabus for UvA Talen Arabic 4, January–March 2018. I will use this syllabus not only to lay out our plan, but also to document what we did and indicate the homework.

]]>The principal moods of the Arabic verb: Indicative, subjunctive, jussive, and imperativehttp://drbulbul.com/2018/01/25/the-principal-moods-of-the-arabic-verb/
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 12:21:50 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=1006In this article we will take a short look at the main moods of the Standard Arabic verb: indicative, subjunctive, jussive, and imperative. We won’t go into excessive detail, just the contexts that beginning and intermediate learners of Arabic are likely to encounter. This is also the reason we won’t discuss the short and long “energetic” moods; they simply don’t occur very often in non-literary texts.

Overview

We discussing mood in Arabic, we are generally talking about different forms of the imperfect (such as يكتبyaktub ‘he writes’) as opposed to the perfect (as in كَتَبَkataba ‘he wrote’). From a syntactic perspective, the Arabic perfect belongs indicative mood, but that is not how people traditionally talk about mood in Arabic.

Before discussing how the different moods are used, let’s first get an idea of what they look. We will postpone our discussion of the imperative, which is based on the jussive. The following table shows the indicative, subjunctive, and jussive forms of يكتبyaktub ‘he writes’:

Indicative

Subjunctive

Jussive

يَكْتُبُ

يَكْتُبَ

يَكْتُبْ

yaktubu

yaktuba

yaktub

Note how the indicative has the suffix -u, the subjunctive has the suffix -a, and the jussive has no suffix at all. In informal Arabic, the indicative u ending and the subjunctive a ending would not be pronounced, so that all three forms would be pronounced yaktub.

This pattern (-u for indicative, -a for subjunctive, and no ending for jussive) holds for all persons that don’t take an inherent suffix (هوhuwa, هيhiya, أنتَ’anta, أنا’anaa, and نحنnaḥnu):

Subject

Indicative

Subjunctive

Jussive

هُوَ

يَكْتُبُ

يَكْتُبَ

يَكْتُبْ

huwa

yaktubu

yaktuba

yaktub

هِيَ

تَكْتُبُ

تَكْتُبَ

تَكْتُبْ

hiya

taktubu

taktuba

taktub

أَنْتَ

تَكْتُبُ

تَكْتُبَ

تَكْتُبْ

’anta

taktubu

taktuba

taktub

أَنا

أَكْتُبُ

أَكْتُبَ

أَكْتُبْ

’anaa

’aktubu

’aktuba

’aktub

نَحْنُ

نَكْتُبُ

نَكْتُبَ

نَكْتُبْ

naḥnu

naktubu

naktuba

naktub

The two feminine plurals (هُنَّhunna ‘they’ and أَنْتُنَّ’antunna ‘you’) remain exactly the same in these three moods:

Subject

Indicative

Subjunctive

Jussive

هُنَّ

يَكْتُبْنَ

يَكْتُبْنَ

يَكْتُبْنَ

hunna

yaktubna

yaktubna

yaktubna

أَنْتُنَّ

تَكْتُبْنَ

تَكْتُبْنَ

تَكْتُبْنَ

’antunna

taktubna

taktubna

taktubna

The remaining forms are all characterized by a suffixe: either -iina (for أَنْتِ‘anti ‘you (fem. sing.)’), -aani (for duals هُماhumaa ‘they’ and أَنْتُما‘antumaa ‘you’), or -uuna (for masculine plurals هُمْhum ‘they’ and أَنْتُمْ‘antum ‘you’) in the indicative (typically shortened to -iin, -aan, and -uun in informal Arabic). In both the subjunctive and the jussive, the na/ni of these suffixes is dropped. So the subjunctive and jussive forms for these persons are identical:

Subject

Indicative

Subjunctive/Jussive

أَنْتِ

تَكْتُبِينَ

تَكْتُبِي

’anti

taktubiina

taktubii

هُما

يَكْتُبانِ/تَكْتُبانِ

يَكْتُبا/تَكْتُبا

humaa

yaktubaani/taktubaani

yaktubaa/taktubaa

أَنْتُما

تَكْتُبانِ

تَكْتُبا

’antumaa

taktubaani

taktubaa

هُمْ

يَكْتُبُونَ

يَكْتُبُوا

hum

yaktubuuna

yaktubuu

أَنْتُمْ

تَكْتُبُونَ

تَكْتُبُوا

’antum

taktubuuna

taktubuu

أَنْتُمْ

تَكْتُبُونَ

تَكْتُبُوا

’antum

taktubuuna

taktubuu

In the table, two verb forms are given for هُماhumaa ‘they’: the first is masculine, and the second is feminine.

The covers the most basic cases, that is, for all verbs that are defective, hollow, or doubled. A bit more will be said about these defective and hollow verbs in the discussion of jussive mood and the imperative.

Now that we have seen what the different moods look like, we can consider the most important contexts in which they occur.

Indicative

The indicative is used in a simple sentence or question in the present tense, whether affirmative or negated with لاlaa:

أنا أَكْتُبُ خِطاباتٍ كَثيرة.

’anaa ’aktubu khiṭaabaatin kathiira.

‘I write a lot of letters.’

أنا لا أَكْتُبُ خطاباتٍ كَثيرة.

’anaa laa ’aktubu khiṭaabaatin kathiira.

‘I don’t write many letters.’

Many of the differences in the moods involve suffixes that would not be pronounced in informal Arabic. Therefore, for consistency’s sake, the example sentences in this article will be fully vocalized as they would be pronounced in formal or Classical Arabic.

The indicative is also used in the affirmative future tense, marked by either سَوْفَsawfa or the prefix سَـsa-:

سَوْفَ أَكْتُبُ الْخِطاباتِ غَدًا.

sawfa ’aktubu l-khiṭaabaati ghadan.

‘I will write the letters tomorrow.’

سَأَكْتُبُ الْخِطاباتِ غَدًا.

sa’aktubu l-khiṭaabaat ghadan.

‘I’ll write the letters tomorrow.’

Subjunctive

The subjunctive is used for a verb following the negative future particle لَنْlan:

لَنْ أَكْتُبَ خِطابًا الْيَوْم.

lan ’aktuba khiṭaaban al-yawm.

‘I won’t write a letter today.’

The subjunctive is also used after various particles meaning ‘in order to’, ‘so that’, or with similar meanings, such as لِli, لِكَيْlikay, and أَنْ’an:

اِشْتَرَيْتُ قَلَمًا لِأَكْتُبَ خِطابًا.

’ishtaraytu qalaman li-’aktuba khiṭaaban.

‘I bought a pen to write a letter.’

اِشْتَرَيْتُ قَلَمًا لِكَيْ أَكْتُبَ خِطابًا.

’ishtaraytu qalaman likay ’aktuba khiṭaaban.

‘I bought a pen to write a letter.’

أُرِيدُ أَنْ أَكْتُبَ الْخِطابَ غَدًا.

’uriidu ’an ’aktuba l-khiṭaaba ghadan.

‘I want to write the letter tomorrow.’

There are a number of other particles and situations requiring the subjunctive. These are just the most crucial ones for beginners. See the section below on resources for more complete discussion.

Jussive

The jussive is used after the particle لَمْlam, which is used to express the negative past tense:

لَمْ أَكْتُبْ خِطابًا الْيَوم.

lam ’aktub khiṭaaban al-yawm.

‘I didn’t write a letter today.’

The jussive is also used with لاlaa for a negative command:

لا تَكْتُبْ الْخِطابَ الْيَوْمَ، مِنْ فَضْلِك.

laa taktub il-khiṭaaba l-yawma, min faḍli-ka.

‘Don’t write the letter today, please.’

There are a number of other situations requiring the jussive. These are just the two most crucial ones for beginners. See the section below on resources for more complete discussion of the jussive.

For the five forms lacking an inherent suffix in the imperfect (هوhuwa, هيhiya, أنتَ’anta, أنا’anaa, and نحنnaḥnu), the jussive can be hard for learners to recognize, since they involve shortening the last vowel in the stem, changing the spelling. So as to put the jussive in context, in the following examples we’ll use the negative past for a jussive context and compare it with the negative present, which is a context for the indicative mood. Notice how either a ا, و , ي, or ى is dropped in the jussive form.

Jussive

Indicative

لَم يَشْتَرِ

لا يَشْتَري

lam yashtari

laa yashtarii

‘he didn’t buy’

‘he doesn’t buy’

لَمْ يَصْحُ

لا يَصْحو

lam yaṣḥu

laa yaṣḥuu

‘he didn’t wake up’

‘he doesn’t wake up’

لَمْ يَبْقَ

لا يَبْقى

lam yabqa

laa yabqaa

‘he didn’t stay’

‘he doesn’t stay’

لَمْ يَصِحْ

لا يَصِيحُ

lam yaṣḥu

laa yaṣḥuu

‘he didn’t wake up’

‘he doesn’t wake up’

لَمْ يَدُرْ

لا يَدُورُ

lam yadur

laa yaduuru

‘he didn’t turn’

‘he doesn’t turn’

لَمْ يَنَمْ

لا يَنامُ

lam yanam

laa yanaamu

‘he didn’t sleep’

‘he doesn’t sleep’

Imperative

The imperative form is used for an affirmative command:

اِقْرَأْ هَذا الْكِتاب.

’iqra’ haadhaa l-kitaab.

‘Read this book.’

Remember that for a negative command we use the jussive preceded by لاlaa, as shown in the section above.

The imperative is based on the jussive. Generally, you simply remove the prefix تََـta- or تُـtu- from the jussive to form the imperative. If the word you are left with after removing the prefix starts with a single consonant, as in the case of تُفَكِّرْtufakkir‘you think (m.s., jussive)’, you’re done. Here are all of the imperative forms of that verb:

Subject

Indicative

Jussive

Imperative

أَنْتَ

تُفَنِّرُ

تُفَكِّرْ

فَكِّر

’anta

tufakkiru

tufakkir

fakkir

أَنْتِ

تُفَكِّرينَ

تُفَكِّري

فَكِّري

’anti

tufakkiriina

tufakkirii

fakkirii

أَنْتُما

تُفَكِّرانِ

تُفَكِّرا

فَكِّرا

’antumaa

tufakkiraani

tufakkiraa

fakkiraa

أَنْتُمْ

تُفَكِّرونَ

تُفَكِّروا

فَكِّروا

’antum

tufakkiruuna

tufakkiruu

fakkiruu

أَنْتُنَّ

تُفَكِّرْنَ

تُفَكِّرْنَ

فَكِّرْنَ

’antunna

tufakkirna

tufakkirna

fakkirna

Here are a variety of other verbs that form their imperative simply by removing the تََـta- or تُـtu- prefix. Note how the resulting imperative begins with a single consonant.

Imperative

Jussive

فَكِّرْ

تُفَكِّرْ

fakkir

tufakkir

‘think’

شاهِدْ

تُشاهِدْ

shaahid

tushaahid

‘watch’

تَعَلَّمْ

تَتَعَلَّمْ

taʕallam

tataʕallam

‘learn’

تَراسَلْ

تَتَراسَلْ

taraasal

tataraasal

‘correspond (with someone)’

صِحْ

تَصِحْ

ṣiḥ

taṣiḥ

‘shout’

دُرْ

تَدُرْ

dur

tadur

‘turn’

So, how do you form the imperative of a verb like تَقْرَأْtaqra’‘you read (m.s., jussive)’? If we take of the تََـta- prefix we are left with قْرَأْqra’, which begins with two consonants rather than one. In this case we need to add اِ’i to the beginning (with an elidible glottal stop), giving us اِقْرَأْ’iqra’. Here are a few different verbs that work like this, again in the masculine singular أَنْتَ’anta form:

Imperative

Jussive

تَفْتَحْ

اِفْتَحْ

taftaḥ

’iftaḥ

‘open’

تَبْتَسِمْ

اِبْتَسِمْ

tabtasim

’ibtasim

‘smile’

تَسْتَعْمِلْ

اِسْتَعْمِلْ

tastaʕmil

’istaʕmil

‘use’

There are two exceptions to this way of forming the imperative with a verb stem that begins with two consonants. The first is with verbs like تَكْتُبْtaktub‘you write (m.s., jussive)’, in which the “stem vowel” (the vowel of the last syllable of the stem) is u. In this case, instead of adding اِ’i, we will add an initial اُ’u (again, with an elidible glottal stop), as in these examples:

Imperative

Jussive

تَكْتُبْ

اُكْتُبْ

taktub

’uktub

‘write’

تَدْرُسْ

أُدْرُسْ

tadrus

’udrus

‘study’

تَنْظُرْ

اُنْظُرْ

tunḍhur

’unḍhur

‘look’

The second exception is the so-called Form IV verbs, which are verbs with that pattern أَفْعَلَ’afʕala and أَفْعَلَyufʕilu. For these verbs, after removing the initial تُـtu- prefix, we add an initial أَ’a- prefix (with a real hamza):

Imperative

Jussive

تُكْمِلْ

أَكْمِلْ

tukmil

’akmil

‘complete’

Resources

Here are two additional sources on moods in Arabic that you may find useful:

The layout on Tripod ain’t pretty, but the information seems very complete regarding the contexts requiring the various moods.

The Arabic Language Blog on the Transparent Language site also has a page on Arabic moods that you may find useful. It is not as complete as the Tripod pages, but may be easier for a beginner to follow.

]]>Duolingo Arabic is coming: What should we expect?http://drbulbul.com/2017/12/21/duolingo-arabic-is-coming-what-should-we-expect/
http://drbulbul.com/2017/12/21/duolingo-arabic-is-coming-what-should-we-expect/#respondThu, 21 Dec 2017 07:00:35 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=968Duolingo is a wildly popular website and app for learning foreign foreign languages. English-speakers are currently able to learn over 25 languages on the platform, ranging from the tried-and-true French and Spanish to the more adventurous Ukrainian, Swahili, Vietnamese, and Esperanto. Spanish-speakers can even take a stab at Catalan or Guaraní.

Although there has been an English course available for Arabic-speakers for some time now, there is no course for English-speakers wanting to learn Arabic. But it appears that this will soon change. In November 2017, a project for just such a course appeared on the Duolingo Incubator page. While the current release date is set for March 1, 2018, initial project release dates on Duolingo are often painfully unrealistic. On the basis of what I have seen for some other Duolingo courses, such as Indonesian and Hindi, it would not surprise me at all if the Arabic course weren’t released until sometime in 2019.

So, since we may be twiddling our thumbs for a while, I thought I’d share my thoughts on what we should expect when the course is released, based on my experience with two other Duolingo courses I’ve completed (Polish and Portuguese) and two others of which I have completed a portion (Russian and Hebrew). So, this piece will be a review of Duolingo courses in general, but also with an eye to predicting what issues we might expect specifically with the Arabic course.

As you will see, while I enjoy using Duolingo, it’s not going be the magic bullet that gets you speaking Arabic. Duolingo is the sugary cereal that is “part of this complete breakfast”; it cannot be considered a complete breakfast in and of itself.

Describing a Duolingo course. Before I go into the details of what I consider the pros and cons of Duolingo, I should give you a better description of how it works and what a course looks like. Each Duolingo course consists of what is called a “tree”, which consists of a number of “skills”. The Portuguese tree (the one for English-speakers) consists of about 67 skills, some of which are centered around a conceptual theme (e.g., family, household objects, education) while others focus on a particular grammatical concept (e.g., future tense, participles). You are forced to work through the tree in a specific order, as only a few new skills will be “unlocked” at one time for your to work on. When you have finished the last skill of the course, you are said to have completed your tree, and all your friends on the platform will congratulate you.

A skill may consist of up to nine lessons, which in turn consist of a number of words and sentences that are presented in the form of exercises. These exercises can take several forms, such as “translate into English”, “click the relevant picture”, “choose the correct form of the verb”, or “match each word to its English equivalent”. Some of the question types used in the Web version are different from those used in the app for smartphone or tablet.

The course has been “gamified” (made into a game). With each exercise you complete, you rack up points. You can make friends and compete against them in how many points you gain. Duolingo also keeps track of how many days in a row you have worked on the course, which is called your “streak”. So, if you complete or review one lesson each day for ten days in a row, you have a ten-day streak. For many people (including me) these features are very motivating. I would literally freak out if it were getting close to midnight and I risked breaking my “streak”!

Duolingo also keeps track of how “strong” your knowledge is of a given lesson based on how long ago you and how frequently you last worked on it, forcing you to go back and review lessons you completed in the past.

A good way to get a feel for Duolingo would be to sign up at Duolingo.com or by installing the Duolingo app and then selecting a course. Your easiest option will be the Esperanto course for English-speakers. Complete one lesson, which will probably take you less than 10 minutes. You will now have a feel for Duolingo.

So that was the general description of a Duolingo course, now for the critical review.

The pros. Here is what I like about Duolingo:

Motivating. I find Duolingo a lot of fun, and when I’m working through a new course it can be downright addictive! With the tree you are trying to complete, the strength of older skills weakening in strength, and the streaks, it is easy to set goals for yourself. If you find friends you can compare yourself with, that can also provide a lot of incentive to achieve.

Convenient. If you have a smartphone and headphones, you can do a lesson whenever and wherever you have a few spare minutes.

Good audio. Most of the courses have good audio, and for most exercise types you hear the sentence pronounced. (For a minority of courses, they seem to have opted for a computer voice, which can be awful. For a case in point, listen to the dreadful voice in the Catalan course for Spanish-speakers.)

Amusing. Duolingo will often surprise you with amusing, surrealistic sentences, like “She replaces the baby with a black dog” that will make you laugh. (A competing platform, Babbel, recently poked fun at this in an ad in which two young women—one a Babbel-user and the other a Duolingo-user—are both in a French café and talk to the waiter in French. The Babbel-user competently orders a drink, whereas the Duolingo-user tells him “The octopus wants to date me.”)

Community-based assistance. If you don’t understand a particular word in a sentence, why a certain form of a word is used, or you have doubts about the correctness, you can click to read questions and comments on the sentence from previous users or leave one yourself. Questions are sometimes answered by native speakers.

The cons. Here is what I don’t like about Duolingo:

Translation-based. Essentially all of the question types involve translation of some sort. That is a very poor design feature of the platform. As you learn a language, you should be learning to think in it directly, not constantly referring to your own language.

Little cultural content. The platform isn’t amenible to teaching you about unique aspects of the culture in which the language is used. This sort of cultural content is not only important when learning a new language, but it also makes the learning process more interesting.

Poorly thought-out question types. This platform has great potential, but the designers have underutilized it, avoiding any question types that would make you think directly in the language. For example, imagine a question type where you see a picture, and then have to click on the word or sentence that correctly describes it (a question type that Rosetta Stone is so good at!). No, once again, the designers of Duolingo seem to attach no value to actually thinking directly in the target language. Such a waste of potential in this regard!

Fraudulent measure of fluency. Your “fluency” of the target language is presented as a percentage. For instance, Duolingo says that I am currently 17% fluent in Polish. This is utter nonsense! Fluency could only be measured by evaluating my oral performance in tasks such as answering questions (e.g., What did you do today? What do you think about global warming?) or narrating an event (e.g., describe what happened in the video clip you are about to see). Duolingo has no knowledge of how I do at these tasks, making the percentage meaningless. Duolingo also has a professional evaluation service for competence in English, meaning that the outfit know something about languistic evaluation. So, they can’t plead ignorance here. The fluency percentage is simply fraudulent.

Lack of context. Duolingo presents your new language as a collection of disjoint words and sentences. This does not promote the development of coping skills, which allow you to learn by making inferences and guesses based on context. You will need to develop these skills elsewhere.

Overall evaluation. Duolingo can be a fun, motivating tool for learning a new language or reviewing one you studied in the past. Some will even find it addictive. However, the platform is not a magic bullet. Its rigid dependence on translation will keep you from thinking in the language, and your ability to complete the exercises will not necessarily reflect your ability to use the material in an active situation, such as using them in a conversation. Duolingo should be considered one tool in a toolbox containing textbooks, grammars, simple reading materials, and other resources that will help you develop your knowledge of different aspects of the language.

Isues with Arabic. So now we come to the question of what to expect from the Arabic course when it is finally released. Well, it should not be fundamentally different from other other Duolingo language courses. The issues that are specific to Arabic are basically these three:

What kind of Arabic? I think we can safely presume that the course will teach Modern Standard Arabic. The question is how formal it will be. For example, would the sentence هذه المرأة المصرية تتكلّم خمس لغات ‘This Egyptian woman speaks five languages’ be pronounced haadhihi l-mar’atu tatakallamu khamsa lughaatin (with all the case and mood endings) or as haadhihi l-mar’a tatakallam khams lughaat (without them)? My personal preference is that beginners be taught the latter style, which although less “correct” is much closer to how native speakers actually talk.

How correct will the Arabic be? The fact is that only a small percentage of educated speakers have a good command of Standard Arabic grammar. This is because the rules of Standard Arabic, which is essentially Classical Arabic, are in many aspects quite different from those of the modern dialects. This means that if there is not at least one person on the Duolingo Arabic course development team who has thorough knowledge of Arabic grammar, there are likely to be grammatical mistakes in some of the sentences presented. This is all the more likely if they opt for a formal style in which all of the case and mood endings are pronounced. Such errors will be confusing to learners, especially those who also using other learning tools.

How will the writing system be taught? Arabic will not be the first Duolingo language in which a new writing system needs to be taught. Others include Russian, Japanese, and Korean. I think the Hebrew course offers the best glimpse of how the Arabic writing system will be taught. In that course, each of the first few lessons introduces a small number of new letters, on the basis of which simple sentences can be constructed. So, the alphabet is introduced gradually, simultaneously with vocabulary and structure. In my view, this is the best way to go about teaching the alphabet, and it is also the approach I take in my book Bite-Size Arabic: Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar.

Conclusion. I really enjoy using Duolingo. It’s a fun and motivating way to learn some vocabulary and structure in a new language. However, it’s important to realize that it’s only one tool of the many you are going to need to build competence in Arabic.

I hope that the designers of the upcoming Arabic course make wise choices in terms of the variety of Arabic they will present (hopefully not overly formal), the voice for the audio, and their approach to teaching the writing system.

Given that it will probably be quite a while until this course appears, why not start out by learning the alphabet using my textbook Bite-Size Arabic? Then you can come back to this blog for other resources for beginning learners. That way, by the time the Duolingo course is released, you will already have a good head start, increasing your chances of completing the course!

]]>http://drbulbul.com/2017/12/21/duolingo-arabic-is-coming-what-should-we-expect/feed/0Arabic 3 syllabus, January–March 2018http://drbulbul.com/2017/12/16/arabic-3-syllabus-january-march-2018/
http://drbulbul.com/2017/12/16/arabic-3-syllabus-january-march-2018/#respondSat, 16 Dec 2017 16:03:27 +0000http://drbulbul.com/?p=940The following is the overall syllabus for UvA Talen Arabic 3, January–March 2018. The syllabus will be updated gradually with more details as the course progresses.

Mastering Arabic 1, Unit 15. We did exercise 4 (p. 203), which uses a lot of vocabulary introduced in earlier lessons (and which you probably aren’t familiar with). We also did exercises 6, 7, 11, and 12.

We worked through Unit 12, exercise 8 (the menu), on page 158, which you will need for one of the homework exercises.

Homework for next class:

Mastering Arabic 1, Unit 14: Do exercise 14 (p. 198). Just discovered that there is also a speaking exercise at the bottom of page 198, using audio on the CD.

Mastering Arabic 1, Unit 15: Do exercises 9 and 10 on page 207. If you have time, do the bottom of exercise 12 on p. 209, where you have to rewrite the paragraph in third person. Next time we will do the exercise on page 210; please think ahead about what you will need to say.